- Saint Valentine's Day in Japan -

Saint Valentine's Day in Japan

Does Valentine's day exist in Japan?

Many Japanese don't have a religion, but we often import a part of another culture from foreign countries.
For example, Saint Valentine's Day.
Saint Valentine's Day is very famous in Japan, everyone knows this is a day for lovers but...

This is a day for girls.

Here, this is a day "Girls show her affection to a boy"
Girls give a chocolate to boy who she loves, and then informs him about her feelings.
So boys are may be fidgeting during Saint Valentine's Day, because they might get a chocolate and affection from some girls.
(In general, popular boys get a lot of chocolate but unpopular boys don't get a lot...)

And if this boy is also loves her, he will answer on 14th March, and they will be a couple.
We call the day "White day" on 14th March.

But there is an another chocolate that called "義理チョコ(courtesy chocolate)"
This is a gift of chocolate for all of the males.
Girls give a tiny cheap chocolate(around ¥100 to ¥400) to a male friends, coworkers, classmates, brothers, and her father.

And there is a pitfall here.
There is an unspoken agreement in Japan that...

When boys get a chocolate on Saint Valentine's Day, they have to give a 3 times more expensive gift on White Day (14th March)...
So some guys don't like Saint Valentine's Day and White Day...
(But it is not a law, so you can refuse if you don't want to do that.)

So you'd better to make sure about the type of chocolate if you get it for Saint Valentine's Day in Japan.